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Companies who employ more women in senior roles are much more likely to dismiss men accused of sexually or physically abusing their colleagues, according to analysis of international and UK data.
Men were more likely to get sacked for abusing a male colleague rather than a female colleague, according to a recent Finnish study, cited in research about the economic impact of violence against women and girls gathered by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
It found that in female-managed organisations (those with a higher than average number of women in high-earning positions) were “significantly more likely to dismiss perpetrators”, while male-managed ones were more likely to see the victim of abuse leave the company.
The IFS cited studies that found women who are sexually or physically assaulted at work experience a major hit to their careers, “including job loss, reduced hours and lower income”. One study found that women who move in with an abusive partner see their earnings drop by an average of 12%. “These losses persist even after the relationship ends, indicating long-term damage to labour market attachment and career progression,” said the IFS.
Women who report rape specifically take a significant and lasting impact to their economic wellbeing, according to one Finnish study, based on police and social data. It found these women earned, on average, 17% less five years after an assault – greater than the 13% hit in earnings over the same time frame associated with being imprisoned for a year in the US. But the study also found that in areas where more police reports of rape led to a court case, the economic impacts on victims were smaller.
The data, which is gathered from multiple “robust” studies according to the IFS, was “shocking”, said co-author Magdalena Domínguez, a senior research economist at the economic research institute.
“Pulling this research together tells us that, as economists, we have to take gender-based violence very seriously,” said Domínguez. “Women pay many prices for domestic and sexual abuse – whether that be disengagement with employment or a drop in earnings after rape. But the research also tells us that there is room for policymakers to make a difference. Women cannot choose not to be victims, but the response from workplaces, police and from other actors can make a big difference to their recovery.”
The IFS also looked at recent studies from the UK, which found that female unemployment increases the risk of domestic abuse, leading the authors to state “financial dependence heightens vulnerability, and demonstrates the impacts that economic conditions – and economic policy – can have on gender-based violence”.
The study also gathered data about the impact of policing on outcomes for victims of domestic abuse, which it said showed “that arrest has a strong deterrent effect on (potential) offenders”, and suggested that “lowering the threshold for arrest would reduce the amount of domestic violence”.
The IFS cited a study from the West Midlands, which found that arrests for domestic violence halved future 999 calls for the crime in the year after the arrest. Another study from Greater Manchester police found that criminal charges against abusers reduced the likelihood of reoffending by almost 40%. But the IFS said risk assessment and related protection did “not appear to reduce the probability of violence happening again”.
Katrin Hohl, the government’s independent adviser on rape said the research showed that policymakers and businesses had to pay attention to the “huge” social and economic impact of sexual and gender-based violence on victims and the societies in which they live.
“This body of work shows us that we urgently need to tackle violence against women and girls, not just because it is the morally right thing to do but because, even from a purely economic perspective, we can’t afford not to,” she said.
